The trip by General Xu Caihou, the most high-profile Chinese military official to travel to the United States in years, is poised to ease tensions that flared earlier this year amid naval standoffs off China's coast.

Xu will meet US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday and tour a string of American bases and installations as the two militaries look to ensure dangerous past miscommunications are not repeated.

The high-profile trip comes ahead of President Barack Obama's first visit to China next month since taking office.

Obama is expected to discuss US-China military ties on top of seeking Beijing's help in stemming the global financial crisis, combating climate change and bridling nuclear drives by North Korea and Iran.

Experts say military relations have long lagged behind political and economic ties and note that Xu's visit comes months after a US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue that failed to address military issues.

Washington has expressed concern at China's military build-up and modernization, pressing for more transparency from the Asian giant on its intentions amid double-digit increases in Beijing's armed forces budget.

The Pentagon chief said last month that China's increasingly advanced weaponry could undermine US military power in the Pacific, as American aircraft carriers and short-range fighter jets faced potential threats from missiles and anti-ship and anti-satellite systems.

China has boosted its conventional missile capabilities to such an extent that an attack involving Chinese short-range ballistic missiles "could cut every runway at Taiwan's fighter bases and destroy any aircraft parked in the open," a RAND Corporation report concluded in August.

"The problem at heart is that China's leaders are still uncomfortable with a leadership position because of what that entails in terms of responsibility," Abraham Denmark of the Center for a New American Security told AFP.

Beijing and Washington have established a military hotline but "the real test of communication is whether they will pick up the phone," noted Denmark, a former country director for China affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Although this year's incidents between Chinese vessels and US Navy ships in the South China Sea and the Yellow Sea were resolved peacefully, "setbacks in the relationship could come at anytime," warned Bonnie Glaser of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"There is a real gap of communication."

In order to allay each other's concerns, the two countries could discuss ways to provide each other with greater "strategic reassurance," Glaser said, repeating US calls for China to reassure the world of its peaceful intentions as it positions itself on the global stage.

A long-standing Chinese demand that Washington stop selling weapons to Taiwan -- which China claims is part of its territory -- is sure to loom large during Xu's talks with Gates.

Beijing cut military exchanges with Washington for months last year over a proposed 6.5-billion-dollar US arms package to Taiwan, but agreed to resume them in February.

On Monday, Xu, a vice chairman of China's central military commission, will visit the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

During his stay ending October 31, he will also tour the US Army's Fort Benning in Georgia, US Strategic Command in Nebraska, Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, the North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego and US Pacific Command in Hawaii.

His trip also comes amid US worries over China's deployment of Jin-class submarines.

According to Pentagon estimates, China will deploy by next year five of the submarines, which can each hold 12 nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles.

earlier related report
Japan urges US to respect 'will of the people' over base
Japan told the United States on Thursday to respect its democratic process in a row over a US base and that the issue would not be resolved before President Barack Obama's visit next month.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada was speaking a day after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates bluntly pressed Tokyo to "move on" quickly with previously agreed plans to build a new US airbase on southern Okinawa island.

The issue has clouded the US-Japan security alliance since a centre-left government took power in Tokyo five weeks ago, vowing a less subservient relationship with Washington after half a century of conservative rule.

Japan's new government has said it will review an agreement to build the new base by 2014 -- a project opposed by many Okinawans who object to the US troop presence and complain of aircraft noise and the risk of accidents.

"The will of the people of Okinawa and the will of the people of Japan was expressed in the elections," Okada said on television, predicting that the issue won't be resolved before Obama's scheduled November 12-13 visit.

"I don't think we will act simply by accepting what the US tells us, just because the US is saying this, in such a short period of time."

The United States, which defeated Japan in World War II and then occupied the country, now has 47,000 troops stationed there, more than half of them on Okinawa, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the war.

Their presence has often caused friction with the local community, especially when American servicemen have committed crimes.

A flashpoint has been the US Marine Corps' Futenma Air Base, located in a crowded urban area.

Under a 2006 bilateral agreement, the heliport functions of the base would be moved to a coastal area of Okinawa by 2014, while 8,000 Marines would be moved to Guam in a relocation to be partly financed by Japan.

However, the new government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his left-leaning and pacifist coalition partners have advocated reviewing the deal and suggested the base be moved out of Okinawa or even out of Japan.

Gates, on a Tokyo visit Wednesday, publicly stressed "the importance of moving forward expeditiously on the roadmap as agreed."

The Yomiuri daily reported that the Pentagon chief had told Okada that Japan should approve the base move before Obama's visit.

Okada said on Thursday that Gates had "pressed and said Japan and the United States had negotiated this issue for as many as 13 years".

"But I told him that we, as an opposition party, had opposed the plan for those years," the foreign minister told Tokyo Broadcasting System Television.

"In the last general election, those opposing the current relocation plan won all the four constituencies on Okinawa. This shows the people's democratic will at this moment."

He added: "I have to question an attitude of insisting that this has been already decided and that there is no option but to implement it."

An analyst warned Japan should not take Washington's position lightly.

"Gates came here to remove a sticking point before Obama's visit," said Takehiko Yamamoto, professor of international politics at Waseda University.

"Washington's global strategy, and Okinawa's geopolitical significance, remain the same, even after the (US) administration changed," he said.

The US bases in Okinawa help the superpower with three major security objectives, he said -- "to counter terrorism, to contain China and Russia, and to tackle the threat of North Korea."

"Washington will probably think that Japan's new administration does not realise the significance of Okinawa," he said. "It may be inevitable that it will grow to distrust Japan as a reliable partner."

Okada, in his TV interview, also said the base issue should be resolved by the end of the year for local Okinawans.

"This discussion started in the first place because the current Futenma Air Base is extremely dangerous for local residents. We need to hurry to remove the danger."

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